Pakistani members of Minhaj-ul-Quran Women League hold up pictures of 14-year-old schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai in Lahore, Pakistan, on Wednesday. / K.M. Chaudary, AP

by Hani Yousuf and Janelle Dumalaon,
Special for USA TODAY

by Hani Yousuf and Janelle Dumalaon,
Special for USA TODAY

KARACHI, Pakistan -- Pakistanis expressed outrage Wednesday and schools closed in protest over the Taliban shooting of a 14-year-old girl who promoted education for girls in a region controlled by Islamists.

Malala Yousufzai was in the intensive care unit at a military hospital in Peshawar after undergoing surgery to remove a bullet in her neck, officials said. Flags flew at half-staff, and many held prayers for her recovery and demonstrations in her support.

She had been on her way home from school Tuesday in the town of Mingora in Swat Valley when she was attacked.

"She was targeted because she is an icon of peace," said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan, which includes the Swat Valley. "She struggled to get an education and worked to bring peace."

At least one Taliban gunman walked up to the school bus and shot her twice along with another female student, officials said.

"It was a very barbaric and cowardly attack," said Saleha Athar, an activist for the Network of Women's Rights in Karachi. "She is an innocent girl who is demanding the right to education."

Yousufzai began writing a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC in 2009 about life under the Taliban. She came to worldwide fame -- and under threat -- about two years later when she began publicly pushing for girls to be able to go to school.

Small rallies and prayer sessions were held for her in Mingora, in the eastern city of Lahore, in the southern port city of Karachi and in the capital of Islamabad. In newspapers, on TV and in social media forums, Pakistanis voiced their disgust with the attack, and expressed their admiration for a girl who spoke out against the Taliban when few dared.

The Taliban opposes female education and was not sorry for the attack.

"She was pro-West, she was speaking against Taliban," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said.

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan's highest-ranking military official, condemned the attack, saying that the army will increase its efforts against the Taliban in the region.

"In attacking Malala, the terrorists have failed to grasp that she is not only an individual but an icon of courage and hope who vindicates the great sacrifices of the people of Swat and the nation, in wresting the valley from the scourge of terrorism," Kayani said. "We will fight and, regardless of the cost, we will prevail."